Repair of upholstered furniture



1962 A. BOND 3,067,992

REPAIR OF UPHOLSTERED FURNITURE Filed June 2, 1960 mfik-m 27 mmvroze. 1 755 U A74 BE/PTBOND- 3,%7,99Z Patented Dec. 11, 1962 Flee 3,067,992 REPAIR OF UPHOLSTERED FURNITURE Albert Bond, 2311 Oxford Ave, South Plainfield, NJ. Filed June 2, 1960, Ser. No. 335% 8 Claims. (Cl. 257-100) This invention relates to repair and reconditioning of upholstered furniture, such as chairs and sofas and the like. More particularly, the invention relates to repaired furniture construction and to a method for effecting repairs to coil spring attachments and coil spring bottom supports in upholstered furniture. The invention is particularly useful where repairs are to be made while working in the home or in other places where sophisticated repair facilities are not available. In this manner the invention represents a significant departure from methods and construction used in building new furniture.

Chairs, sofas and other upholstered furniture as may be found in homes and offices are usually constructed on a Wood frame within which coil springs are appropriately mounted to cushion and contour the seats and backs of the furniture, the coil springs usually being connected together and to the surrounding wood frame by twine, and supported within the frame by a lattice of relatively wide fibre strips. In use, the twine ties and the fibre support webbing often become broken causing misalignment of the coil springs and resulting distortion of the furniture contour, discomfort to the person resting upon the furniture, and the likelihood upon continued use of further damage to the upholstery by tearing due to its snagging on the metal springs.

In conventional construction, the series of coil springs are arranged in a grid pattern, several rows of three, or sometimes four coil springs being aligned across the width of a chair, for example. In new furniture, a twine attachment is made between the front row of coil springs and the front rail of the frame in order to prevent toppling of the springs from their upright arrangement when the chair is sat upon. This twine attachment is subjected to severe stress when the chair is used, and more often is the first element to break when the furniture comes into disrepair. To attempt to replace the twine tie with new twine, without stripping off some of the upholstery covering at the front of the furniture so as to expose the frame, is a very diflicult and impractical procedure for those who lack experience in the art. The difiiculty probably explains why repairing of upholstery in the home is seldom practiced although such would be more convenient and less costly.

In addition, after long use of the furniture, and at about the same time as broken coil spring attachments are discovered, it is sometimes found that joint connections in the surrounding wood frame may have become loosened. These loosened connections should be braced or reinforced against further damage when the furniture is reconditioned.

Repair of these difiiculties is usually considered a complicated and troublesome matter not to be undertaken by those without high skill and experience in furniture repair work, or without relatively elaborate tools, equipment and other working facilities. Consequently, the repair of upholstered furniture has been thought to be costly, involving its removal to appropriate workshops, and to be relatively ineffective if performed by others than skilled craftsmen.

Thus, it has been believed that the repair and reconditioning of upholstered furniture usually requires removal and subsequent reattachment of the furniture covering material and other relatively complicated rebuilding proce dures in order to duplicate the original construction. This has discouraged participation by home dwellers in making such repairs, and by individual craftsmen who might organize small businesses for the purpose. The present invention provides a method and construction wherein detachment of the upholstery is unnecessary, and whereby repairs may be conducted conveniently in the home or at places other than where relatively elaborate repair facilities, tools and other equipment are available, and without regard to the relevant original construction of the furniture. Moreover, the method may be practiced by those who have only limited experience in the art.

It will be understood that the method and construction to be described probably will not be preferred where elaborate workshop facilities are available, or when building new furniture. In these circumstances, quite different methods and construction, well-known to those having skill in the art, probably will be found more acceptable.

Accordingly, it may be said that the principal object of the invention is to provide a repaired furniture construction, and a method for repairing detached or broken coil spring and bottom support elements in upholstered furniture. Further it is intended that removal of the upholstery covering or other duplication of relevant furniture-building steps will not be involved so that such repairs may be effected at relatively low cost and with only a minimum expenditure of time and effort on the part of persons having little or no experience and only simple tools and equipment. A practical rebuilding of the furniture will be achieved in a manner better than has been heretofore believed attainable under the circumstances, short of attempting to reupholster the furniture. The resulting repaired construction is diiferent from that of the new furniture, yet affords the same results by providing a strong and durable furniture piece. In addition, it will be found that the joints between members of the surrounding wood frame will have been reinforced by the construction so that, except in cases of extreme disrepair, tightening there of by a separate repair step is eliminated.

The invention will be described herein in connection with its use in the repair and reconditioning of the seat of an upholstered chair. However, it will be understood that the invention is also applicable in the repair of the back of the chair, or in the repair of other upholstered furniture pieces which include coil springs mounted within a frame construction.

Generally, the objects of the invention are achieved by providing a pliable, tar-paper coated steel attachment strap between each coil spring in the front row thereof and the front rail of the frame, the strap being looped about a center coil of the spring and the ends of the strap attached, as by self-tapping screw-type nails, to the food front rail. The attachment strap is relatively narrow, about one-half inch in width, and is looped at least one turn about the coil to prevent lateral displacement of the spring, the tar paper coating also contributing to prevent slippage by presenting a slip-resistant surface of contact between the parts. One end of the looped strap is attached to the inner surface of the front rail at a location near its upper or top edge, considering the chair as being in its upright position ready for use. The other end of the attachment strap is fastened to the bottom edge of the front rail.

Alternatively, as shown by a modified form of the invention, a relatively heavy, U-shaped staple may be partially driven into the inner surface of the front rail, oriented horizontally, and located proximate a center coil of the spring in its normal position with respect to the rail, whereupon the attachment strap may be looped only a half-turn around the appropriate center coil, and both of its ends passed through the space aperture provided by th partially driven staple to be attached to the bottom edge of the front rail. Of course, the strap ends are passed through the staple aperture from What will anemone be normally the upper side thereof so that tension in the strap during use of the chair will be supported by the heavy staple.

After all of the front row coil springs have been so positioned and attached to the front rail, a coil spring supporting webbing, or lattice is constructed across the frame, between opposite rails, following a conventional pattern. However, the bands which form the support webbing are of the same relatively narrow, tar paper covered, pliable steel strip material, which provides advantages as will be seen.

To form the bottom support, a strip is first attached, as by a screw nail, to the bottom edge of the front rail at a location therealong so that, when stretched across the frame to be similarly attached to the opposite, back rail thereof, the band will extend along the centerline of the several coil springs which are normally mounted within the frame in a longitudinal row extending between the front and back rails. Similarly, a strip is attached across the frame, between the front and back rails, on the centerline of each other row of coil springs which extends in the same direction within the frame.

Each coil spring is then appropriately repositioned to its normal location within the frame, centered and abutted against its corresponding band, as aforesaid, and against the upholstery seat padding of the furniture in conventional manner. No attachment of the springs to these bands is effected at this time.

Next, another steel band is attached to extend in crossdirection between the opposite side rails of the frame,

over the normal centerline of each transversely extending row of the springs, the band being interwoven at each coil spring location first under the lowermost coil of the spring, thence across the exterior surface of the first referred to band which extends thereacross, thence under the opposite side of the lowermost coil of the spring, and so on with respect to each coil spring to the other side of the furniture where the band is tightened, as by a stretching tool, and attached to the side rail. It will be apparent that each coil spring is now secured in its proper location, and against lateral movement with respect to the support webbing thus formed. The tar paper covering on each steel band provides a frictionalized, or slipresistant surface of contact between each coil spring and the bands, and between the bands themselves, to prevent the springs from sliding laterally, out of position, during normal use of the chair; yet the band is relatively narrow in width so that ample space isprovided in the latticed conseruction to permit easy access to the interior of the seat for repairing any broken twine tie attachments-between all of the coil springs, which 'step is now performed. When such repair to the interior twine ties has been effected, the furniture seat has been repaired and reconditioned ready for use.

It will be noted that a tension-type bottom support webbing has been formed, as contrasted with a resilienttype bottom construction. The tension-type bottom is perfectly adequate, and the construction serves to'effectively tighten all of the joints in the surrounding wood frame.

These and other objects and features of the invention will become more fully apparent by reference to the following detailed description thereof when taken together with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 illustrates a chair having conventional upholstered furniture construction, to show certain features thereof which are relevant to the invention;

FIGURE 2 is a plan view of the bottom frame portion of the chair of FIGURE 1, as viewed from the bottom thereof, showing the coil springs mounted and attached therein in accordance with the invention;

FIGURE 3 is a sectional side elevation of the bottom frame construction shown by FIGURE 2, the section taken at lines 3--3 thereof;

FIGURE 4 is a perspective view of a tar papercovered,

4 narrow steel strip which is used in the practice of the in vention;

FIGURE 5 is an enlarged sectional side elevation of a front rail portion of the bottom frame construction shown by FIGURE 3, to show a modified form of coil spring attachment thereof;

FIGURE 6 is a view in perspective of a corner portion of a bottom frame construction to illustrate the embodiment of the invention shown by FIGURES 2 and 3 in greater detail; and

FIGURE 7 is a view similar to FIGURE 6 to show the modified embodiment of FIGURE 5 in greater detail.

Referring to FIGURE 1, an upholstered chair 10 has a Wood frame 11 within which are mounted coil springs 12 to form a seat portion 13 and a back portion 14 of the chair when covered with upholstery, generally indicated by dotted lines 15. The chair is shown in its normal upright condition ready for use. When the furniture is new, the coil springs 12 are uprightly arranged in a grid pattern of longitudinal rows 16 and transverse rows 17 extending respectively between the front rail 18 and back rail 19, and between the side rails 20 of the surrounding frame portion. The springs 12 are interconnected by twine ties 21 (not shown in FIGURE 1), and each spring 12 in the front row 17a thereof is attached by a twine tie 22 to the front rail 18 of the frame. The springs 12 are further supportedby bottom support webbing which, in new furniture, is formed by a latticework of relatively wide, usually fibre bands 23 which are attached across the frame, in criss-cross interwoven fashion, on the centerlines of the rows 16, 17 of springs. Each fibre band 23 has width almost equal to the diameter of the large bottom coil 24 of any spring 12, so that the completed bottom support almost totally closes the bottom of the seat 13, or back 14, leaving insufficient space between the bands for access to the interior spring space.

Assuming for purposes of description that the seat 13 of the chair 10 has come into disrepair, either by rupture of twine ties 21 or 22 of the springs or of bottom support fibre bands 23, or both, a repaired construction thereof may be effected as will be described.

The chair It) is inverted to a working position, as indicated by FIGURES 2 and 3, in which its underside, or bottom is conveniently accessible. The bottom webbing, or lattice of fibre bands 23 (FIGURE 1) which supports the coil springs 12 at the bottom of the chair is then entirely removed. Preferably, conventional long nose pliers (not shown) such as have comparatively broad, and corrugated inner working jaws, are used for the purpose. Conventionally, almost all upholsterers use a ripping tool (which resembles a chisel) and a mallet for prying off this bottom webbing, but it has been found that long nose pliers may be used to better advantage. The task is performed quickly and neatly using the long nose pliers, since the tool will not generally cause tacks and pieces of material to become disassociated with the webbing strips or hands 23, as commonly occurs where a ripping tool is used, and which provokes a littering up of the home or workplace.

Referring to FIGURES 2 and 3, each coil spring 12 on the transversely extending front row 17a thereof, which is adjacent the front rail 18 of the surrounding wood frame 11, is attached in its normal, upright position to the inner surface 18a of the front rail by a looped, steel attachment strip 25. As shown by FIG- URES 3 and 6, each looped steel strip 25 is attached at one of its ends 250 to the front rail inner surface 18a at a location along the height of the latter near its upper, or top edge 18b, considering that the chair has been inverted in the drawings. Generally, the attachment location should be proximate a center coil '26 of the spring 12, around which the strip 25 is looped, and the attachment is effected by a self-tapping, screw-type nail 27, the latter being familiar to the trade.

spe /gees The attachment strip 25 is looped in end over end relation at least one turn about a center coil 26 by passing the strip first either over or under the upper surface 26a thereof, thence fully around the coil 26 so that the coil is engaged by the loop portion 250 of the strip, whereupon the end 25b of the strip is attached, as by screw type nail 27, to the bottom edge 180 of the front rail 18, as shown by the drawings.

As shown by FIGURES 5 and 7, attachment of each front row spring 12 to the front rail 18 may be alternatively effected. A relatively heavy, -U-shaped staple 31, having width sufficient to pass the strip 25, is first partially driven into the inner surface 18a of front rail 13 at a location along the height of the latter which is proximate the elevation of a center coil 26 of spring 12 around which the strip 25 will be looped. The staple 31 is oriented horizontally, and is hammered into the front rail so as to form an aperture between the two, as indicated by numeral 32, for passage of both strip ends 25a and 25b after the strip 25 has been looped in end over end relation a half-turn about the coil 26 so that the coil is engaged by the loop portion 25c of the strip, as shown by the drawings. Both ends 25a and 25b are then attached, as by screw type nail 27, to the bottom edge 18b of the front rail 18.

Atypical section of the flat steel strip material 28 Which is used throughout the practice of the invention is shown by FIGURE 4. The steel strip 29 is relatively narrow, about /2 inch in width, and has a tar paper jacket or covering 30 therearound. The covering 30 is actually a mastic paper bonded to the steel strip 29 by bitumastic adhesive 30a. The steel strip 29 is extremely pliable, having almost the bendable characteristics of a lead strip in this respect, and having almost no resiliency, or springiness. Thus, the looped strip 25 will be easily formed since the material will have little tendency to spring away from its intended configuration.

As clearly illustrated by FIGURE 2, each coil spring 12 in the front row 17a thereof has been attached to the front rail 18 of the furniture frame 11. It will be noted that it has not been necessary to detach or remove any of the chair upholstery when making the attachment, yet an extremely strong repaired construction has been effected. As alluded to earlier, the usual twine tie attachment 22 (FIGURE 1) has not been duplicated. Further, whether or not the twine tie 22 is found to be ruptured, it is always preferable to provide the steel strip 25 attachment when the furniture is being repaired since this connection of the springs 12 to the front rail 18 is under great stress during normal use and an original twine tie 22 thereat would be likely to rupture subsequently.

Next, and before attempting to further position and align the coil springs 12, a bottom support 33 for the springs will be formed across the surrounding frame. The support 33 is a lattice arrangement of steel bands 34, 35 of the same relatively narrow, tar paper covered and pliable steel strip material 29 (FIGURE 4) as was used for making the looped attachment strips 25.

To form the bottom support 33, the steel bands 34 are first attached, as by screw type nails 27, to the bottom edge 18b and the bottom edge 1% of the front and back rails, respectively, of the furniture frame to extend thereacross in tightened or stretched condition. A stretching tool may be used for tightening the bands before making their final attachments. Note that each steel band 34 is located along the centerline of a corresponding longitudinal row 1d of coil springs 12.

When all of the longitudinally extending bands 34 have been attached, each coil spring 12 is uprightly positioned and centered under the appropriate band, the bottom coil 24 of each spring abutting against the inner surface 34a of the band and the top coil abutting against the upholstery 15.

Bands 35 of bottom support 33 will now be attached across the frame, as by screw type nails 27, between the opposed side rails 20. Each band 35 is first nailed to the bottom edge 20a of a side rail, and then threaded through the bottom coil 24 and its associated band 34 in an interweaving fashion. So that each spring 12 will not be subject to lateral slipping or displacement during normal use of the chair, the band 35 is first passed under the nearest portion of the bottom coil 24 to engage its upper, or top surface 24a (considering that the chair has been inverted in the drawings), thence over the band 34 to lie against its outer surface 34b, and thence under the far side of the bottom coil 24 to again engage its top surface 24a. The interweaving procedure is repeated as each spring 12 in the transverse row 17 thereof is reached during the threading of each band 35. The band 35 is then tightened, as by using a stretching tool, and nailed to the bottom edge 20a of the appropriate side rail. In like manner, all of the bands 35 are attached along the centerlines of the transversely extending rows of coil springs.

It is to be noted that the tar paper covering 30 on each band 34 and 35 presents a frictionalized, or slip-resistant surface of contact both between the bands themselves, and between each band and its associated coil spring 12 which prevents even limited lateral slippage or displacement of the coil springs upon normal use of the furniture. Thus, relatively narrow steel strip material may be used, rather than the wide fibre or steel strip materials conventionally employed and which almost completely close the bottom of the furniture, so that access to the interiorly located coil springs may be had because of the large spaces between the bands. This is an important feature of the construction since the twine ties 21 between the coil springs 12 need not be repaired until the bottom support 33 has been completely formed. In the method, such delay in making these twine ties 21 is an advantage because the likelihood is avoided that all of the springs 12 will not be accurately aligned within the rows thereof. Such disarranged repaired construction might result upon attempting to repair the ties 21 prior to the time the repaired bottom support is in place. The attempt would have to be made where conventional, wide bands are used to form the repaired support since the bottom would be closed by the construction.

When the twine ties 21 which interconnect the grid pattern of springs 12 have been repaired, the furniture is then in repaired condition ready for normal use.

While steel strips have been used in the past to form the bottom support webbing in upholstered furniture, relatively wide bands, approximating the diameter of the large bottom coils of the springs, have been selected for use in the interwoven construction in the belief that such will prevent lateral slippage of the springs. Thus, as do wide fibre bands, they form an almost closed bottom, preventing access to the interiorly located coil springs, as aforesaid. Moreover, when relatively narrow bands have been used, the bare steel, or the resilient fibre bands have been ineffective to prevent such slippage. In contrast, the present invention employs jacketed, narrow steel bands in the formation of the bottom support webbing, thereby providing a repaired construction which will prevent such lateral slippage of the springs, yet will permit easy access to the interior of the furniture for making repairs to the twine ties between the springs, either at the time of making the repaired construction or at a later time.

The tension type bottom support 33 which has been formed also serves to hold the frame rails tightly together, thereby eliminating movement between frame elements at joints which have loosened under normal use of the furniture. The need for separate repairs to these loosened joints, which would arise were a resilient type bottom included in the repaired construction, is eliminated.

Thus, a repaired construction for upholstered furniture, and a method of repairing broken coil spring attachments and their bottom supports in upholstered furniture has ace-"mesa 7 been described which achieves all of the objects of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. In upholstered furniture including a plurality of coil springs uprightly mounted within a surrounding frame, means for supporting said springs within said frame comprising a plurality of looped steel attachment strips, each of said strips respectively attaching each of said springs in a front row thereof to a front member of said frame, each said strip having an end over end loop portion engaging a center coil of its associated spring, and both ends of each said strip being attached to said front member of the frame whereby its said associated spring is supported in its substantially normal position when said furniture is being used.

2. In upholstered furniture, means according to claim 1, wherein each said attachment strip is precoated with tar paper.

3. In upholstered furniture, means according to claim 1, wherein one end of each said strip is attached to the inner surface of said front member of the frame near the top edge thereof, and the other end of each said strip is attached to the bottom edgeof said front member.

4. In upholstered furniture, means according to claim 1, and a corresponding plurality of aperture forming means of the inner surface of said front member of the frame each respectively proximate the normal position of one said center coil and each arranged and constructed for passage through said formed aperture of both ends of saidassociated attachment strip.

5. In upholstered furniture including a plurality of coil springs uprightly mounted in longitudinal and'transverse rows'thereof within a surrounding frame, a bottom support for said springs comprising a plurality of relatively narrow steel bands each in tension type attachment across the bottom of said frame to and between oppositely disposed portionsthereof and on the centerline of one of said rows, said bottom support arranged in a lattice pattern and constructed in interwoven engagement with said springs, each said band pre-coated with tar paper.

6. In upholstered furniture including a plurality of coil springs uprightly mounted in longitudinal'and transverse rows thereof within a surrounding frame, means-for supporting said springs within said frame comprising a looped steel attachment strip for attaching each of said springs in a front row thereof to a front member of said frame, said strip having an end over end loop portion engaging a center coil of its associated spring, and each of the ends of said strip attached to said front member of the frame, and a bottom support comprising a plurality of relatively narrow steel bands each in tension type attachment across the bottom of said frame to and between oppositely disposed members thereof and on the centerline of one of said rows, said bottom support arranged in a lattice pattern and constructed in interwoven engagement with said springs.

7. In upholstered furniture, means according to claim 6, said attachment strip pre-coated with slip-resistant material and attached at one of its ends to the inner surface of said front member of the frame near the top edge thereof, and said loop portion providing substantially one turn of said strip about said center coil.

8. In upholstered furniture, means according to claim 6, and aperture forming means of the inner surface of said front member of the frame proximate the normal position of said center coil and arranged and constructed for passage through said formed aperture of both ends of said attachment strip, said strip pre-coated with slipresistant material and looped substantially one-half turn about said center coil.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 90,229 Bolt May 18, 1869 163,760 Flynt May 25, 1875 606,683 Peugh et al. July 5, 1898 815,436 Knorzer et al. Mar. 20, 1906 1,678,400 Lewis July 24, 1928 2,026,843 .Meutzch Ian. 7, 1936 2,149,357 Mayer Mar. 7, 1939 2,687,767 Clark Aug. 31, 1954 FOREIGN PATENTS 130,506 Australia Dec. 6, 1948 

